Exercise 1: The next big thing
Choose an example of contemporary visual communication, for example a specific
piece of graphic design, an illustration or an advert.
• What characterises it as ‘new’? How does it fit within wider contemporary trends?
• Are there any direct lines of influence from other contemporary artefacts – or historical ones?
• What factors may lead to your example becoming ‘last year’s thing’? What aspect of the design will age first? What do you think will replace it?
Reflect on these questions in your learning log.
This is a great example of a contemporary visual communication picture with ”reusing the old” element as the centre of the story. It is a fresh approach to one of the most famous works of art. The painting has been divided into 20 equal parts then it has been collapsed and each one has been coloured differently only to be reconstructed back and come out as a fresh alternative pop art painting.
Relatively recently a huge trend of overlapping boundaries has been introduced; Artists create work by playing with conventional pieces of art and process them so they will look fresh using alternative or even neon colours and construct a new feature that resembles the old but with a modern twist. They also push boundaries by being provocative sometimes.
At that point, someone can spot the downside of it: the colours used are not easy to the eye. There is no colour harmony or balance and by overusing a technique you end up sabotaging it. Colours and techniques that look fresh and interesting now tend to fade away in a few years; that could be a great exercise for an artist though. Try to be always up-to-date and try to find new ways of thinking, experimenting, of working towards it.
What stays in the end, is the piece of art itself and the artist’s message that is being communicated from it.
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